From: alano@teleport.com (Alan Olsen)
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 94 18:27:46 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: CONTROL FREAKS (nee, AIDs testing and privacy)
Message-ID: <199409090127.SAA12377@teleport.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>                         SANDY SANDFORT
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>
>C'punks,
>
>In response to Duncan's post which said, in part, that developing
>countries could not afford totalitarianism, Alan Olsen opined:
>
>    The nature of control freaks is that they ignore the
>    actual costs of their actions.... Do they really think
>    of the financial costs associated every little decision
>    designed to control our lives?  The true concern is
>    *POWER*...
>
>Well to paraphrase Star Trek's Scotty, "They canno' change the
>laws of economics."  What would-be totalitarians want, and what
>they can get, are two different things.  The massive Soviet Union
>took three-quarters of a century to grind to a halt.  It would
>have been much quicker, but for the Czar's strong agricultural
>and burgeoning industrial base, "liberated" German technology,
>the absorption of richer, more savvy Eastern Bloc countries and
>massive infusions of capital, food and technology from the West.

But it is also the case that industrial countries, when they fall on hard 
times tend to fall back on an authoritarian "bread and circuses" approach to 
governing.  Fascism in 1930's Germany was one such govenment.  The current 
government was unable to deal with the financial and social problems and so 
reactionary elements were able to seize control of the government and impose 
their own brand of totalitarianism.  (Remember that Hitler was elected.) I 
think that this country is ripe for such a movement.  We have a number of 
groups that are ripe for scapegoating.  We have the economic conditions 
(although this seems to be changing for the better...).  We have the control 
freaks just wating to gain the power and more waiting in the wings.  They 
have the money and they have the technology.  And they have a population 
that is willing to give up alsmost any right to gain "security".
 
>
>The underdeveloped countries, on the other hand, don't even have
>"seed corn" to eat--unless we give it to them.  Let them try to
>go down the totalitarian road; if they do, they are doomed to
>self-destruct.
>
>History and technological progress are on our side.  There will
>be some temporary, local setbacks in the coming years, and have
>some mopping up to do, but we've already won.

Don't be too smug yet...  There are people in power who have not figured out 
that totalitarian states cannot survive.  (They also do not seem to care 
about the long run.)  All they are concerned about is making people follow 
their rules under their conditions.  Logic and reason have nothing to do 
with the "thought patterns" of these people.  Besides, it is not their money 
they are spending on this.  It is yours.

As far as I have been able to determine, the only thing that you can do with 
a control freak is to kill him before he obtains any position of power.  (Or 
wrap him in duct tape and feed him lots of Thorazine(tm).)
/========================================================================\
|"I would call him a Beastialic Sadomasochistic   | alano@teleport.com   |
|Necrophile but that would be beating a dead      | Disclaimer:          |
|horse." -- Teriyaki (What's up Tiger Lily?)      | As if anyone cares!  |
\========================================================================/